Galena on Dolomite

Mogul mine near the village of Silvermines in County Tipperary, Ireland, is famous for its fabulous world class Galena specimens which were found in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  This is a sublime example with bright silver, well-formed cuboctahedron Galena crystals perched over near-vertical ribs of a white, finely crystallised Dolomite matrix.  Although many great Galena specimens were recovered, this is a particularly fine and rare example of this quality.  Little, if anything, was known of these specimens outside the village, yet a few miners took home any attractive specimens, mainly of Galena and/or ruby Sphalerite as they felt them too good to pass through the crushers.  It was the now legendary mineral dealer Richard Barstow who ventured to Ireland and bought most of the known stock.  The Galena crystals on this very fine small cabinet specimen attain 2 cm across and show to full advantage against the almost snow-white Dolomite, a contrast rarely seen in specimens from here.